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ON THE WAY FROM PROBLEM DEFINITION TO PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

Dr Ludvik Hodulak
Fraunhofer Institut IWM
Freiburg
Germany

To improve the strategy for non-destructive examination of a component, a life time estimation of the component with assumed defects can be done. This approach is shown on the example of the life time estimation for a railway car bogie, starting with a guideline for the assessment of components with defects (here a new German guideline for mechanical engineering is briefly presented), proceeding with calculations and completing the work with a report. While the guideline is helpful at the modelling of the problem and preparation of input data, a finite element stress analysis reveals parts of the component which have to be examined in more detail and delivers stress data necessary as input for a fracture mechanics analysis. The report should sum up all results in a comprehensive way.

The presentation is focused on the use of the PC defect assessment software IWM VERB for the calculation of fracture conditions and fatigue crack growth. From the view point of a PC user and programmer the ways of modelling and the kind of interfaces between software packages are lined out, which could possibly reduce the effort on the way from the problem definition to the final presentation of results.